Doug Christie’s success in developing young players was a major reason why the Kings decided to keep him as head coach, Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee writes in a subscriber-only piece. The team only won 22 games this season, but general manager Scott Perry said during Wednesday’s exit interviews that he’s encouraged by the progress of rookies Nique Clifford, Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell, who improved significantly throughout the season.
“That was one of the main reasons in making sure Doug Christie came back as head coach,” Perry told reporters. “Doug’s relentless energy, his leadership that he exhibited with these young guys, his patience, never wavered throughout a challenging year.”
Christie, who also spoke at the event, promised to eventually produce a winner “come hell or high water.” Perry noted that injuries played a role in this year’s failure, as Christie was forced to use 34 different starting lineups. He got just 19 games from Domantas Sabonis, 23 from Keegan Murray and 39 from Zach LaVine.
“It would be nice to plug those guys in and have all that,” Christie said. “We didn’t have it, but I can see how all of that would fit because the ability to shoot, the ability to defend and the ability to rebound are absolute musts, and those guys help in all those categories.”
There’s more from Sacramento:
- Perry indicated that he’ll be looking to make changes this summer to a roster that’s filled with expensive veterans, Anderson adds. The Kings currently project to be about $20MM over the luxury tax and nearly $4MM above the second apron. “There are a lot of mechanisms to work around the cap,” Perry said. “I will just say this. From the time I started in this league 23 years ago, my philosophy is never to be a team going into the luxury tax unless we were a roster worth of that, ready to compete for a champion. We’re not there yet, so we have a number of avenues over the next three, four, five months to make sure we’re in compliance with that and also put the very best roster we can out there for next season.”
- The Kings are open to bringing back Russell Westbrook next season, per Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports Bay Area. The 37-year-old point guard will be a free agent again after signing a one-year deal with Sacramento shortly before the start of the season. He wound up playing 64 games and averaging 15.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.7 assists in 29 minutes per night. “Russell’s always welcome with me,” Perry said. “I loved working with Russell Westbrook this year. I mean, he was phenomenal. I can’t say enough. … Extremely competitive. I wish I had an opportunity to work with Russell earlier in my career as well, because I really like what he stands for. And again, we will keep the lines of communication open and we will see what happens and what’s available for us this offseason.”
- An important offseason decision is looming regarding DeMar DeRozan, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN. DeRozan has been extremely reliable since joining the team in 2024, but the final year of his contract only carries a $10MM guarantee on his $25.7MM salary. Parting with him could be a way to ease the tax concerns. Marks also addresses the need to build a younger roster in a video outlining the Kings’ offseason.
- Christie confirmed that assistant coaches Dipesh Mistry and Jimmy Alapag won’t return next season, relays James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter link).
Still hoping Russ can get at least one ring tbh, one of my favorite guys to watch as you see he tries to do everything to win and clearly hates to lose. Won’t forget how he carried my Wiz to a playoff series with damn near no talent.
I was hoping Russ would have come to New York instead of Clarkson. Maybe next year
I’d probably keep Christie too, of course he was going to suck this year with that team and all the injuries. He did get improvement out of the young guys so I guess he did why he could.
It’s really the front office letting him down providing him with that team and expecting something to come of it.
The good news is you’re getting a really good prospect in the draft this year, can’t really go wrong with either a 4 (Boozer/Wilson) or a point guard (take your pick).
But yeah you need to do your best to move off LaVine, DeRozan and Sabonis.
You already have Raynaud ready to replace Sabonis and he’s your most variable asset, so that’s a no brainer. DeRozan can be shipped then brought out who cares. LaVine will be the difficult one to do anything with.
Russ has been on 7 teams in the last 8 years. At this point, the Kings re-signing him is basically waving the white flag for next season.
The problem with Russ isn’t even physical, it’s mental. A guy who’s 18 seasons into his career shouldn’t still have huge red flags. He could slow down to curb turnovers, but no, he keeps throwing the ball away. He could stop shooting the 3 because he’s terrible at it, but no, he put up 6 a game last year. These aren’t hard things to figure out, but he can’t do it.